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Lord Kal Interview
- Broken Alliance 24/05/04
Dancam: Hey, and thanks again for doing this
interview. First question, why did you begin work on your OWN modification
for the Yuri's Revenge Expansion?
Kal: It began when I was going to start a
campaign. I looked at modding, joined Sleipnirs, and thats when it all
started.
Dancam: According to your website,
you eventually intend to create over 150 new units. How far have you been
progressing so far, and could you perhaps give a few details on your favourites?
Kal: It's progressing fine, i'm
well on target with that. My favourites are: for Sea, the HMS Invincible,
for land the Ravager (a huge German tank) and for Air, the Level Bomber.
Relic Tank - The new light tank used by the RLF.
Dancam:
With that many new units in your mod, you will need to heavily re-develop
the AI for computer players. How do you intend to do this, and will we
see any improvements over the original game?
Kal: AI
will now be anti-player. For example, say I capture a couple of oil derricks
and reinforce them with machine gun posts, anti-tank guns and AA weapons.
They'll first attack with infantry, get wiped out by the machine guns
and he'll rethink his strategy. He might try and bomb the anti-tank guns
and attack with tanks, but get destroyed. Then he might try and knock
them out with artillery then attack with tanks. If he can see that you're
persistent, he'll just accept he won't get them and blow them up with
a missile or something.
Dancam: In the mod, you intend to
utilise a new income system, revolving around the capture of civilian
towns. Could you please explain in a little more detail, exactly how this
will work?
Kal: On
maps, there will be towns, villages, and cities. They will have a town
centre in them. When this is captured, your off-map commanders will deem
it necessary to supply you with the funds you require to request units
to be built. This results in sieges and city defenses. All infantry can
now garrison buildings, but can be cleared out by certain infantry. To
capture a town centre, you must send an engineer inside.
Invincible - HMS Invincible in SHP form.
Dancam:
Are you still intending on creating a campaign
for your mod, and if so, how is that progressing?
Kal: That's
going very well. Have a look at the competition we're offering.
Dancam: What
new game modes are you including with the mod, and could you explain how
each works?
Kal: The main mod i'm doing at the moment
is supply lines. It involves a road to each players base leading from
a supply pile. It's quite long and on it's own vulnerable to enemy attack.
But supply trucks are scripted to come along. 10 of them. Each player
recieves a supply dock which the miners will drop your funds off at. The
problem is that supply trucks are irreplacable, and you can guarantee
the enemy are trying to thwart your plans. Defend your 10 trucks whilst
trying to take out theirs. Less trucks means less money. No trucks means
no money and effectively removes you from the game. The problem is that
we need specially scripted maps for it.
Cannon_test - The new British field gun. Obviously
it's much smaller and is manned by infantry.
Dancam: You mention
on your website that there will be strengths and weaknesses for each nation.
How have you gone about organising this to maintain balance?
Kal: In games such as generals, some sides
tactics have a definitive advantage over others. For example, the infantry
general would have problems fighting the toxin general. In Broken Alliance,
this won't happen, The idea is to pick the country which improves your
tactics the most, so if you liked defense you would go France.
You have previously mentioned that you will be having new 'Mini-Superweapons'
to accompany those originally in the game.
Dancam: How do these work, and how do you
intend on implementing them for 6 sides?
Kal: Each side will have its own superweapon
relating to their strategy. I don't want to give away what they are...
but i'll just say, that if you were using offensive tactics like the Germans,
the weapon might be a bit haphazard and damage everything in sight. If
you were defensive it might have a bit more precision and not harm your
units.
MissileTank3 - The new British tank.
Dancam:
The original release date for the alpha test for staff members was April
this year. Unfortunately, we now know that you had some problems meeting
this. How goes the progress towards Alpha and when can we expect to see
a subsequent Beta release?
Kal: The Alpha test will be in
around 2 months, the Beta test relises on so many factors i'm afraid I
couldn't possibly say.
Dancam:
Is there anything else that I've missed that you
would like to mention?
Kal:
Yes. Firstly, i'm changing the
whole way Red Alert 2 works.
Infantry.
Infantry's weapons which involve bullets are completely useless against
tanks. Instead, grenades will be thrown. Very slow to reload, there are
only two of them, they're inaccurate and they don't do much damage. Anti-tank
infantry will be able to finish off a tank in 2 or 3 shots, but will take
much longer to reload. All infantry will be able to garrison buildings.
Rifles will be more effective at distance, automatic weapons will cut
through infantry like a hot knife through butter.
Tanks.
Tanks are now beasts to be feared. They can't be built as quickly or as
cheaply as they used to be able to be built. All vehicles are slower and
have a wider turning circle. In narrow streets, tanks will find it difficult
to turn. To make up for all this, most tanks will come with a co-axial
machine gun, but on the vehicle, not the turret, So the tank will have
to face the infantry to shoot. The tanks main gun is very powerful, destroying
civilian buildings easily. It can destroy a tank in one or two shots but
it's very inaccurate. It also makes infantry keep their heads down. This
means that tank battles will be more dramatic, with the ground erupting
and dirt being thrown everywhere.
Aircraft.
The heavy-duty aircraft are designed to be sent into an enemy base with
AA guns and come out intact. The fighter aircraft are no longer completely
useless in the presence of one AA unit, and will be able to take more
of a pounding than before. But they will also be more expensive.
Ships.
Ships are now hugely expensive and very slow to turn. But now they are
also hard to sink and very, veyr powerful. The point of this is so that
player will have to take to the seas and skies to sink an enemy navy.
Secondly: I'm looking for people to post in with entries to be a general
in Broken Alliance you'll have to fight. Give me the following:
A name
A unique unit
A strategy you use
And your ideal stronghold.
PM your entries to Lord Kal on eithger cncguild or sleipnirs stuff, or
email them. The best one wins, and we can talk to discuss further details.
The winner will be put into a mission on Broken Alliance for the player
to fight.
Dancam:
Ok, thanks again and good luck with Broken Alliance.
Kal: Thank
you.
Frenchrifle - The French Rifleman.
To access
the Monday Mod Report associated with this article, click here.
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